The II Gala Maelicum in tribute to the Orphans of the Guardia Civil, to be held on 25 September in the Symphonic Hall of the Auditorio Nacional de Música, will feature the American soprano Aubry Ballarò, making her debut in Spain, accompanied by the prestigious Radio Television Symphony Orchestra of Slovenia, conducted by the Bulgarian-American maestro Rossen Milanov, all of them leading international figures in classical music.
The proceeds will help to provide orphans of the Guardia Civil, through scholarships, with extraordinary studies in the fields of classical music, creative writing and corporal expression.
The II Gala Maelicum in homage to the Orphans of the Guardia Civil, to be held on 25 September in the Symphonic Hall of the Auditorio Nacional de Música, will offer a lyrical programme performed by the American soprano Aubry Ballarò accompanied by the prestigious Symphonic Orchestra of the Radio Television of Slovenia conducted by the Bulgarian-American maestro Rossen Milanov, all of them leading international figures in classical music.
The programme is made up of pieces from works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ('Idomeneo', 'Zaide'), Giuseppe Verdi ('La Traviata'), Piotr Ilich Tchaikovsky ('Serenade for Strings in C major'), Gaetano Donizetti ('Lucia di Lammermoor'), Giacomo Puccini ('La Bohème'), Charles Gounod ('Romeo et Juliette'), Georges Bizet ('Carmen') and Ruperto Chapí ('Las hijas de Zebedeo').
The aim of this concert is to raise funds to contribute to promoting the classical musical education of Civil Guard orphans, through scholarships for them to study extraordinary studies in classical music, creative writing and corporal expression (theatre) in the best schools in Madrid and in other cities in Spain where they reside. The orphans can also attend rehearsals and concerts during the annual musical season organised by Maelicum Conciertos.
Tickets can now be purchased from the website of Maelicum. In order to make them accessible to a diverse public, a wide range of prices is offered, specifically 13 categories, ranging from 10 euros for the cheapest to 250 euros for the Premium zone.
"We want everyone who wants to experience the emotion of the music in this programme to be able to do so. For this concert we will have leading international figures performing wonderful and exciting opera pieces that will allow us to travel from the music of Mozart to that of Bizet, passing through Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Puccini, Charles Gounod or Donizetti; and also zarzuela pieces by Ruperto Chapí", says Marián Bárcena, founding partner of Maelicum Conciertos.
Aubry Ballarò
Soprano Aubry Ballarò will make her debut in Spain with this concert, but she has a consolidated career. Possessing an exceptional voice, she has won the District Laffont Competition at the Metropolitan Opera in 2022 and the Bologna International Vocal Competition in 2019. And she was a finalist in the Jensen Foundation Competition in New York (2022) and in the Vincerò World Vocal Competition in Naples (2021).
After graduating from the Philadelphia Academy of Vocal Arts, she made her international debut in the title role of 'Lucia di Lammermoor' with the Stara Zagora State Opera in Bulgaria in 2022. She has since sung the role of Madame Herz in the Princeton Festival production of Mozart's 'The Impresario', Violetta in 'La Traviata', also with the Stara Zagora State Opera, and Gilda in 'Rigoletto' with Opera Columbus. She has also played Micaëla in the production of 'Carmen' at the Festival de Musique de Saint Barthélemy, among other roles and popular operatic selections in other concerts.
Rossen Milanov
Trained at the Bulgarian Academy of Music, the Tanglewood Music Center, the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and The Juilliard School in New York, where he received the Bruno Walter Memorial Scholarship, Rossen Milanov is a renowned conductor with a long international career, respected and admired by audiences and musicians alike. He is currently music director of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra (CSO), the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, the Princeton Symphony Orchestra and the Princeton Festival, and principal conductor of the Slovenian RTV Orchestra in Ljubljana.
He has been music director of the Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra, the New Sofia Symphony Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony in C and the Principality of Asturias Symphony Orchestra (OSPA).
He has performed with many symphony orchestras in the United States, Canada, Switzerland, Holland, Latvia, Hungary, South Africa, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, New Zealand, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore, among other countries, and has collaborated with the world's leading musicians. He has also collaborated with the world of opera and ballet in the USA and Europe, such as the Spanish premiere of Tchaikovsky's 'Mazzepa' and Bartok's 'Bluebeard's Castle' at the Oviedo Opera.
He has also participated in educational projects such as Link-Up with Carnegie Hall, St. Luke's Orchestra and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.
Milanov is also passionate about new music and has performed in world premieres of works by composers such as Derek Bermel, Mason Bates, Caroline Shaw, Phillip Glass, Richard Danielpour, Nicolas Maw and Gabriel Prokofiev, among others.
RTV Symphony Orchestra Slovenia
With a career spanning more than seven decades, he has always maintained musical excellence and the highest interpretative standards. He is mainly engaged in studio and concert recordings for the National Music Archive of his country. Since Rossen Milanov has become its chief conductor, it has resumed its artistic path with high-profile projects with renowned conductors and soloists.
Its exceptional quality led tenors José Carreras, Plácido Domingo and Andrea Bocelli and the duo 2Cellos to choose it as an accompanying orchestra for concerts in Slovenia and neighbouring countries.
Its repertoire consists of songs from the treasury of world music from all artistic periods, anthologies and baptismal performances of Slovenian musicians, as well as concerts of orchestrated folk music.
It was the first Slovenian professional symphony orchestra to make its debut, in 2019 and with great success, on a tour of Latin America. Under the baton of Raoul Grüneis and with the famous cellist Mišo Majski, it performed in the most important concert halls in Lima, Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo.
Between 2007 and 2019 he was a member of the international orchestra network ONE - Orchestra Network for Europe, co-funded by the EU Creative Europe programme.